Lack of aircraft preventing global air travel recovery

Source: Schengen Visa Info

The air travel industry has recently been facing delays in aircraft deliveries, a problem that is not allowing it to fully recover from the pandemic.

In this regard, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) director general Willie Walsh said that this year global airline capacity will be lower than expected and will also remain constrained until 2025 due to delays in new aircraft deliveries and the lack of availability of spare parts, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.

“I can’t see anything really improving or significantly improving probably until 2025 at the earliest, and it may even go beyond that,” he also noted.

In addition, airlines expect travel demand to recover to 2019 levels and higher this year, however, a lack of aircraft to meet demand is holding back growth.

As Skift reports, even the aircraft manufacturers Boeing Co and Airbus have acknowledged that they are feeling widespread pressure from obstacles in the supply chains, which is leading to delivery delays.

Commenting on this issue, Director Walsh pointed out that even the bosses of these two airlines have reported a lack of sufficient spare parts, especially for the engines.

According to Walsh, this means capacity will be slightly lower than the industry had anticipated. At the same time, he added that he expected the reduction for this year to be in the low single-digit range.

As for Boeing, last week, it announced a new freeze on suppliers of 737 deliveries. Airbus has also begun notifying airlines of delivery delays next year for its best-selling A320neo family of aircraft.

Last Wednesday, Europe’s largest airline, Ryanair, warned it would cut its July schedule as it expects around 10 Boeing 737 MAX planes to be delayed due to production problems.

Moreover, Walsh noted that he did not expect such great chaos at the airports this year. However, in the past year, problems such as labor shortages and the sudden increase in demand after COVID-19 in Europe have caused airlines to cancel a large number of flights and reduce capacity.

Previously, an analysis of the European airlines by Mabrian Technologies has revealed that considering the ten European airlines most affected by cancellations between July 17, 2022, and August 30, 2022, almost 9,000 canceled flights were recorded. As a result, two out of every hundred scheduled flights by these ten airlines were canceled in Europe.

Given the fact that airlines are claiming to meet net zero targets, Walsh said that Europe was set to lose out to the United States because of the stimulus provided by the Inflation Reduction Act.

Last month, the European Parliament decided to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from transport, buildings and agriculture by 30 percent to 40 percent by 2030 compared to 2025 levels.

This law, the so-called Effort Sharing Regulation, regulates approximately 60 percent of all EU emissions, and through it, all EU countries must reduce GHG emissions with targets ranging from ten to 50 percent.